Wine Experts Toast Major Contract Success

The contract – which is expected to be worth in excess of £1million over three years – will see Alliance Wine supply new wine lists to each unit in the eight-strong Montpeliers portfolio in Edinburgh, which includes the popular city centre venues Tigerlily and Rick’s.

In the first month, the Ayrshire-based company – which has had to invest in a new vehicle fleet to facilitate deliveries – has supplied around 860 cases in the first month.

A key feature of the Montpeliers contract has been Alliance Wine’s focus on promoting wine sales ‘by the glass’, particularly through its improved preservation techniques and new ranges of good quality, affordable wines.

Alliance Wine, which is unique in having its own production company in Adelaide, has also created a one-off brand – the Pimpernel rosé wine from Coonawarra, Australia – for Tigerlily which will go on sale soon.

Wine contract win

Giles Cooke MW, Buying & Marketing Director at Alliance Wine, said securing the Montpeliers contract is a major coup for the company.

He said: “Montpeliers is one of the big names in the licensed trade sector in Scotland, with a superb portfolio of top quality bars and restaurants and a huge customer base who love their wine.

“We have been tracking them for sometime so winning the contract to be their exclusive wine supplier is a major accomplishment for Alliance Wine – not least as they will now be our biggest on-trade customer.

“Each of the venues has a new and distinct wine list, no easy task to compile as Tigerlily alone has in excess of 100 wines.

“While this means all the units will have an increased wine offering, we have worked hard to improve the range of wines being offered by the glass.

“This is very important as the trend towards wine drinking is growing and customers increasingly want to try top quality wines that they would not normally buy by the bottle – at good prices.

Wine expertise

“We aim to help companies like Montpeliers give their customers a better wine for the same or better price than what was being offered previously.

“We are able to do that because we are different from other wine distributors in that we cut out the middle man as we actually source and produce our own wine. That means working with growers, with glass suppliers and networking with people in the industry to provide the best service and wine we can.”

Teams from Alliance Wine spent several weeks training staff from Montpeliers on the new wines to ensure they were expertly equipped to advise customers.

Giles added: “We’re passionate about wine and the business of wine – and about making sure our customers can achieve the best returns they can on their wine sales. We’re the only company to employ two Masters of Wine to ensure the most expert knowledge possible.

David Johnston, Development Director at Montpeliers, said: “Alliance Wine’s attitude, passion and dynamism towards wine is perfectly aligned to how we think and operate as a business.

PR in Scotland for Alliance Wine

“They are very creative and understand the importance of getting the customer excited.

“People want to try new and different wines, without paying high prices, and we are now able to offer this thanks to the wine lists that Alliance Wine has created.

“We were also impressed at how they immersed themselves into training our staff to ensure the quality and story of the wines are passed onto our customers.

“We’ve no doubt that a lifestyle change is happening and people now want greater provenance on what they are eating and buying when they go out, rather than simply being impressed by a sleek design space.

“Our customers will now get this with their wine purchase at Montpeliers venues. We are very excited at the reaction these new ranges will spark.”

Alliance Wine, founded in 1984, has developed into one of the UK’s leading producers, importers and distributors of premium wines with a portfolio of 1200 wines from 14 countries.

While its headquarters and most of its 49 staff are in Beith, Ayrshire, Alliance Wine also has a sales office in London and is pursuing further opportunities in the world’s wine producing areas to build on the success of its Australian subsidiary division, Alliance Australia.